Apple's OS Edge Is a Threat to Microsoft

BusinessWeek ^ | 04/11/2008 | by Gary Morgenthaler

[Swordmaker]

A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market

The 20-year death grip that Microsoft has held on the core of computing is finally weakening—pried loose with just two fingers. With one finger you press "Control" and with the other you press "right arrow." Instantly you switch from a Macintosh operating system (OS) to a Microsoft Windows OS. Then, with another two-finger press, you switch back again. So as you edit family pictures, you might use Mac's iPhoto. And when you want to access your corporate e-mail, you can switch back instantly to Microsoft Exchange.

This easy toggling on an Apple computer, enabled by a feature called Spaces, was but an interesting side note to last fall's upgrade of the Mac OS. But coupled with other recent developments, the stars are aligning in a very intriguing pattern. Apple's (AAPL) recent release of a tool kit for programmers to write applications for the iPhone will be followed by the June launch of iPhone 2.0, a software upgrade geared toward business users.

Taken together, these seemingly unrelated moves are taking the outline of a full-fledged strategy. Windows users, in the very near future, will be free to switch to Apple computers and mobile devices, drawn by a widening array of Mac software, without suffering the pain of giving up critical Windows-based applications right away. The easy virtualization of two radically different operating systems on a single desktop paves a classic migration path. Business users will be tempted. Apple is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft for overall computing dominance—even in the corporate realm.

[Spktyr]

A clarification: I have never seen a network (outside of a school) with more than 100 Windows workstation that didn’t have a domain controller, etc.

I have seen far too many 100-and-under networks that didn’t.

[Spktyr]

Same here.

The fun part is when they start expanding and you hand them a quote for Windows Server to control their now larger netowrk... ugh...

[tacticalogic]

Somehow the idea that a company of sufficient size to need 50-100 workstations doesn’t need any kind of domain security to control data access and provide an audit trail doesn’t sound right. Either that, or I’m used to dealing with a lot more sensitive data than your customers.

[tacticalogic]

I’ve walked in on entirely too many 50+ Windows workstation sites in the course of contracts where there was no domain server at ALL.

How well was that working out for them?

[Spktyr]

I believe it is the latter.

Most of the under 100’s do things like “make furniture” and convincing them that they *need* data security beyond simply making backups is.... difficult.

Tell me, is your background large corporate IT, by any chance?

[Spktyr]

Mixed bag. On some, stunningly well, on others not at all (which is why I’d been called in...), and on the rest not too bad.

The best one was a retail operation with a couple of stores where each of the cash registers was actually running Windows. Active Directory had actually been tried and not even the manufacturer could get the registers to work right with the domain - not even with the assistance of a Microsoft engineer.

[tacticalogic]

AD and Exchange admin for a bank holding company. Our network encompass over a hunderd branch facilities of about 15 different banks.

[Swordmaker]

Also, I’m surprised that Apple didn’t use some of that seed money from Microsoft offered in the late 1990’s to come up with better keyboards such as Microsoft’s excellent split-key ergonomic keyboards.

Microsoft makes some excellent keyboards... how they avoided screwing them up is a wonder.

Apple also had some of the best keyboards around... good feel, good response.

Microsoft's purchase of $150,000,000 in preferred stock was not seed money when Apple had almost 1.5 billion dollars in cash when that purchase was made. Apple was in the middle of developing the iMac, OS X server, and starting development of the iPod. I think their choices of where to spend any cash they had were the correct ones... except the money they spent on the original iMac's mouse...

I hope they got a refund...

[Swordmaker]

Hey Swordmaker, I just wanted to thank you for all these Apple articles. While the “my market share is bigger than yours” stuff matters not the least to me, they do make me think.

Thanks for the thanks... You know, I'm still learning as well. Not a week goes by that I don't find something I didn't know... or had forgotten.

[tacticalogic]

Most of the under 100’s do things like “make furniture” and convincing them that they *need* data security beyond simply making backups is.... difficult.

Hopefully they're not retail operations with records of their customer's credit cards stored on their systems somewhere.

[Spktyr]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Suffice it to say, most companies do not have (or feel they have) the need for such data security, and they do not have the budget to spend on it anyway.

A good example is Cheddars, a regional restaurant chain. Their corporate email is run on Exchange. For their 500-odd users, they HAVE to have two dedicated Exchange admins on staff. TWO people, at about $40-75,000 each, just to make sure thair email system keeps working.

That’s an expenditure that most small businesses can’t justify.

(Note that I have no connection with Cheddars. I had to work with their IT personnel one day to resolve an email issue between one of my clients and their system).

FYI, I have one client that experimented with Exchange for two years, despite my recommendation against it. 50 users. They spent %100,000 on staff and equipment and ended up going back to the POP/LDAP solution because Exchange is a disaster (at their level).

[Spktyr]

Most of these are *not* retail operations, no. But even the retail ops aren’t using domains and domain controllers when they’re small to medium sized.

(Which can explain where all of these exploited card numbers are coming from.)

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Nice post - to sum up what we’ve learned in the last 20 or so years.

1. Cheap hardware + Plentiful Content > Cool Technology.
2. Open archictecture + Low Priced Development = Plentiful Content

[tacticalogic]

(Which can explain where all of these exploited card numbers are coming from.)

And how the botnets that are launching the spam and phishing attacks can grow to a million+ machines.

[Spktyr]

Nah, those are usually residental computers. I think the average distribution is 70% residential, 25% business, 5% undetermined.

[tacticalogic]

Geez. I’ve got about 5,000 mailboxes on mine, and 2 of us split our time between that and directory maintenance. I’ll grant you it’s not the easiest system in the world to use, but a full time Exchange admin per 250 users doesn’t sound like a representative example.

[tacticalogic]

Nah, those are usually residental computers. I think the average distribution is 70% residential, 25% business, 5% undetermined.

Well, that's where the 25% is coming from at least.

[Spktyr]

Yeah, I didn’t get into that in depth so I don’t have *all the details or rationale; I’m using it as the sort of thing you see down here in the trenches with smaller organizations than what you’re used to dealing with.

You see “corner cases” like that *all* the time in the field.

FYI, the break point for “we need to have a full time domain/Exchange admin on staff” seems to be around 40-50 users. At that point, just calling in consultants on occasion won’t do it as you’re looking at almost daily issues (between the server and the users).

[Spktyr]

Clarification: That’s the break point *if* they’re using domains/Exchange.

Lots of them try to avoid that expense as long as possible.

[discostu]

Um no it was “Apple is the Windows killer” from about 1990 to 94 then they started having problems, then OS2 Warp became the first software package ever to outsell DOS and it became “OS2 is the Windows killer”, then IBM screwed that pooch by not including the ability to run 32-bit Windows apps in Warp 4, then for like a week it because “Netscape and the desktop extensions and web apps is the Windows killer” but by the end of that week everybody realized that the desktop extension thing sucked and in a dial-up world web apps were a bad idea, then they glommed onto Linux but that was mostly out of desperation to find a Windows killer. Finally they gave up on finding a Windows killer, but then Steve rode to the rescue with OSX and walla the world once again had a “Windows killer”. Of course these days it seems the press thinks Vista is the Windows killer, but they always say Mac will pick it up after MS is done killing themselves.

There’s simply no way the press thought Apple was doomed from 88 to 01, for one thing 89 to 91 is considered the first golden age. Things didn’t start looking hairy for Apple until they had a string of failures like the Newton and the PowerMac/PC, that’s when “Apple is doomed” started, because that’s also when they started losing a lot of money, and the market share started nose diving.